A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting is a great family movie, just in time for Halloween! This novel turned movie is full of adventure, fun, silly, and of course spooky moments. It has something for everyone, and has a great message about believing yourself and facing your fears. I had the opportunity to speak with the talented cast of the film. See what they had to say when asked about monsters!
What Monster Would The Cast Want To Be?
About The Movie:
When high school freshman Kelly Ferguson (Tamara Smart) reluctantly agrees to babysit Jacob Zellman (Ian Ho) on Halloween, the last thing she expects is to be recruited into an international secret society of babysitters who protect kids with special powers from monsters. In order to keep Jacob safe from harm, Kelly teams with no-nonsense chapter Vice President Liz Lerue (Oona Laurence), tech genius Berna Vincent (Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson), creature expert Cassie Zhen (Lynn Masako Cheng) and potions master Curtis Critter (Ty Consiglio) to defeat a Boogeyman known as “The Grand Guignol” (Tom Felton), a glamorous witch named “Peggy Drood” (Indya Moore) and their legion of mysterious monsters. Based on the first installment of Joe Ballarini’s popular scary book series of the same name, A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting is directed by Rachel Talalay, produced by Ivan Reitman and Amie Karp, with Naia Cucukov, Tom Pollock, and Ilona Herzberg executive producing. Alessio Scalzotto, Tamsen McDonough, Ashton Arbab, Crystal Balint, and Ricky He also co-star in this action-packed adventure about working together to overcome your fears.
My teens thought the movie was a lot of fun! A good amount of suspense, jumps and then laughs. My 8 year old was a little creeped out at times, but she enjoyed it. Tom Felton is unrecognizable as the creepy Grand Guignol. He plays a character you will love to hate. The Babysitters are totally cool. My 8 year old asked when she could start babysitting because she knows how to kick monster butt now 🙂 The movie definitely leaves room for a sequel, which would be well received. The story of normals kids having to stand up and face their fears will resonate with many. I think families will enjoy the story and want to watch again. “I connect with stories where you don’t need to have a super power in order to be a superhero,” says Producer Ivan Reitman. “I loved that about Ghostbusters and that the film brought together this group of scientists to fight bad ghosts.” This film brings babysitters together and together, they overcome their fears.
#ABGTMH Fun Facts
- Tom Felton brought this dog to set often. Everyone loved the extra company on set!
- To prepare for the role, Felton looked at a lot of Mick Jagger footage. “The Grand Guignol is written as
a half-monster, half rock-star so I worked with a choreographer quite early on to work out some of the
movements and that turned into quite a dance.” - Felton’s makeup application process took more than two hours each day.
- The cast enjoys Halloween and dressing up. Together they have a long list of fun costumes such as the poop emoji, The Office characters.
- The cast has their own fears such as spiders, the dark and Tamara Smart admitted to a big fear of ducks!
- Stunt coordinator Maja Aro, was brought in for several weeks before the filming began. “We did some
fight and stunt basics and the key cast all went to the parkour gym. The characters are pretty active
and we wanted each of the babysitters to have distinct movements.” - The Toadies – Snaggle, Roscoe and Jimmy – are all visual effects creations. On set, they were played
by an actor in a green suit who also did most of their stunts. His presence served as reference for his
fellow actors to interact with, while visual effects artists rendered the creatures in post production. - The book is one of the main props in the film. Prop master Dean Goodine says, “It was quite a process
bringing that book to life. It began with a 3D sculpted cover, created by our art and sculpting
departments, and then three artists were commissioned to create monster drawings for the pages. The
book was in the works for several months, and every page is a work of art, and a lot of fun as well.”
A BABYSITTER’S GUIDE TO MONSTER HUNTING is now streaming on Netflix!
